Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Please refrain from answering or placing cell phone calls from public bathrooms. It compels people like me to flush the toilet repeatedly to let the person on the other end of the phone know exactly where you are. ;)

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Using your long-hoarded Socks That Rock yarn for socks for your beloved. What, you didn't expect me to say something profound, did you?

Tonight, I'll cast on a bigger version of the Madder Ribbed Socks for Hubs from STR "Beryl". I love the colors of this yarn, but they're manly enough for man socks. Means I'll get to buy more Socks That Rock to replace this skein, right?

Also actively on the needles is an Elegant Ribbed Stocking from "Favorite Socks" that my SP sent me. I'm using Dale of Norway Heilo in navy blue. I only have one of the three sets of DPNs required to make these socks, and I got to the point where I'll need the size 7 DPNs. Cheap excuse to go to the yarn store this week. My attempts to photograph my progress thus far were really poor, so no pics tonight.

Should I be concerned that all my finished objects so far this year have been socks?

Monday, February 26, 2007

"The Prestige" popped out of the DVD player just in time to make my Movie Musings Monday post.

If you like twists and turns and intrigue, GO RENT THIS MOVIE. I love movies that make me audibly gasp, and oh, how this one did. Plus, it has a killer line-up: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson, and Michael Caine. I fully plan on purchasing a copy of this movie on DVD.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Gobsmacked Stars. Really, go rent it! Knitting Rating: 3 out of 5 Skeins. While very visual in nature, stockinette or ribbing in the round is appropriate. Lends itself particularly well to knitting vintage Victorian era patterns. Be on the lookout for beautiful lace knits!

I enjoyed this pattern, even though I did screw up the heels. The Opal yarn didn't seem splitty and was pretty easy to match to each other. I was pretty paranoid about breaking another Lantern Moon DPN, but they all stayed in one piece. I liked the way this toe was worked over 28 rows with a series of K2TOGs. No sloppy SSKs on the toe of my socks :) They kept my feet nice and toasty today, too!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

What's it for you're asking? (No, Zoe and/or Phollower, it's not for that purpose.) Behold!

It's a book weight (That's Genetics for Dummies if you're curious.)

Now I can knit a simple sock and read at the same time as it holds the pages down hands-free. I've been slacking a bit on reading as I've been all-consumed with knitting socks. Now, I don't have to choose between knitting and reading. So my words of wisdom for this week, if you're a knitter who reads, invest $10 in one of these bad boys, well worth it.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Knitting progress this past weekend was all about me. I did brave the snowfall Saturday morning to mail Grandmom's backup socks. Other than that, my knitting time was all about me, for me.

Hubs put the brakes on my late night shopping spree for solid color sock yarn from Knitpicks. Instead, I'm working through some of my stashed sock yarn which happens to be mainly earmarked for projects for myself. First up is a pair of Oak Rib socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. It's Opal Rain Forest yarn in "Fish". My attention was pretty lacking when I knitted the heel and heel turn and was 4 stitches shy of the pattern. Eh, design feature as long as I can duplicate it on the second sock.

Eh, not so fishy really.

Saffron Cables afghan also got some knitting time attention.

Up to row 41 on the first pattern repeat

Apparently, there's a mispring in the pattern. It calls for 3 75 row repeats, but it needs 4. *sigh* That means I'm only 13% completed on the cabled section. I could really have used a bulky weight wool/alpaca blanket this winter. I think I've opened another cream-colored blackhole!

Monday, February 19, 2007

Stunned silence, then overwhelming anger. The fake DVR which held countless hours of TV shows deleted everything on its hard drive sometime between last Tuesday night and tonight. Gone is the second season of the new Dr Who, the only once shown Gencon special on X Play, scads of Battlestar Galactica episodes, and the brand spanking new episodes of Rome for which we actually bought HBO to see. Some of them were well past their prime while others were much too young to go. A pox on DishNetwork's crappy DVR. Tonight, my head hangs in sadness of the loss of those precious hours of TV gems. *sniff*

Because everyone chooses a bad movie rental every once and awhile - even Hubs. Historically speaking, the title of "Worst Movie Chooser" has been mine since Hubs and I started dating. I take full responsibility for "Nacho Libre", Dean Koontz's "Phantoms" (which was NOTHING like the book!), and a slew of bad Christopher Lambert movies. With his recent selection of "The Marine", Hubs now is the holder of that dubious title.

Before the movie began, I had it pegged as a bad movie when the WWE studios logo was shown. And HOW did this movie deliver the cheesy badness. Ridiculously large explosions, horrible acting, and random chick fights were de rigeur. Highlight of this movie is its relatively short duration - long enough to finish 4 rows of my Saffron Cable afghan.

Overall Rating: No stars for you! It was that bad.Knitting Rating: 2 out of 5 skeins.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Surprise, surprise. As soon as I finished my first pair of Madder Ribbed Socks, I started another. This pair was completed using Lucy Neatby's Celestial Dream Merino on US1's (back to my trusty Crystal Palace DPNs). These are destined for Pennsylvania for my grandma. They were started as a back-up pair in case her first pair were lost in the mail. :) All the packages that I send will have tracking on them from now on. Can't be too cautious with handknits!

Wii've been enjoying the we. :) Some of the mini games can give you a hell of a workout!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Heed your own advice. For example, the Words of Wisdom Wednesday post I made last week, clogs aren't good foot apparrel in the snow. I slipped on a pair of clogs this evening to check the mail. Completely forgetting the several feet tall drifts in our driveway and yard. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm an idiot now after fishing out a clog that slipped off and got stuck in a snowdrift.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

No way in Hades will I go out in today's weather. The fact that we're under a BLIZZARD warning in central Indiana sealed the deal for me. Weather.com is listing the Indianapolis area as having "Unknown Precipiation". That roughly translates to "Shit-pile of snow and toss in some ice, too just for fun".

View from the Office WindowNote the snow drift that's parallel to the base of the window

View from the Back DoorCan't see crap through the built-up ice and sleet on the door

Friday, February 09, 2007

Today's excerpt for From the Book Friday is sharing my LibraryThing. With my goals of organizaation this year, I decided I better get a handle on my bookshelves, piles, boxes, and general mess of books. More fiction will be added; however, all my knitting books are represented for your perusal. :) See random books from my shelves on the widget to the ummm....right side of the screen.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

I received a call from my grandma this afternoon; her surprise birthday socks I mailed last Tuesday arrived safely at her house today. Both of us and my mom were convinced that their vile neighbors nabbed her socks and were wearing them. I even started an emergency back-up pair of socks to send to her if the first pair were lost in transit.

I returned home to a big surprise sitting on our snowy front porch, a package from my Knitty Secret Pal. My SP is fabulous!!! Look at the pretties!

When the forecast calls for snow, be prepared. Not prepared in a raid the grocery store for canned goods, bread, and toilet paper way. Prepared as in wear appropriate shoes for walking in show. Unexpected treks in through 5 inches of snow happen. For example, after a rough day, the battery in the garage door opener dies and you have to walk through snow drifts in sub-zero wind chills wearing CLOGS. >.<>still cold.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Up for review this week is Flyboys. A movie about a squad of American volunteer WW1 fighter pilots who flew for France. There's also a rather weak love story that's half in mumbled French with no subtitles and typical male buddy movie themes. The highlight of the movie by far were the dogfight scenes. Well filmed and excellent effects.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars. I'd recommend it to fans of other war movies.Knitting Rating: 2 out of 5 Skeins. I kept bugging Hubs with questions on which character was on the screen as it was really hard to knit and keep track of character faces with aviator goggles and helmets on.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Big ol' congrats to the Colts for winning the Super Bowl. Wonder what Indy will be like tomorrow; it's been a mad house for the past few weeks. (Just as I typed that someone blasted down our quiet subdivision road honking their horn. Bandit's doing his celebratory barking now, too.) I finished up a pair of socks during the third quarter.

Celebratory Socks Watching Commercials

Madder Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks

I tried to match the striping, but these are fraternal twins. One of my fancy Lantern Moon DPN was sidelined permanently after a snap late in the toe. Damned SSKs were too tough for rosewood. I've heard that Lantern Moon has very good customer service and should send a second string replacement. I really liked the simple ribbing used in this pattern almost as much as I like the wide heelflap. The swoopy, pointy toe, not so much love. I think my next pair of socks will be for Hubs or myself, but don't quote me on that. :)

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Hubs and I rented Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom a co-op RPG for the PS3 this week. Last night, we sat down to create our characters and start the game. First, I was miffed that the warrior class only had a male character available, so expressing my inner crabbiness at the lack of female characters, I named him "Bitch Tits". However, anytime my character's name was on screen it was a censored out garble of symbols. Censoring mild curse words on a game rated "T" for ages 13 and up. *insert eyeroll here*

However, on Viva Pinata, a game approved for all ages for the Xbox 360, has allowed me to name my pinatas and stupid helpers very colorful names - Dipshit the Watering Helper, Dumbass the Harvesting Helper, and a herd of horse pinatas all named a variant of "ass".

Clearly, XBox 360 is winning the next-gen console war in the "No Lame Censoring" category.